NSTIW Chapter 1
by RacerX1966
Summary: Lots of Action, Dragon Fights, Crawling through dragon innards... Fun Read


No shit there I was, knee deep in swamp water with a mature green dragon closing in on me. Zirien couldn't believe that his elven half-brother Iandel's plan actually worked: "Let's have the druid scout out the swamp till he flushes out the indigenous haunt". Just before Zirien headed out Streed his other half-brother and Iandel's twin prepared a floating eye and had it hover near Zirien so the two brothers could closely watch Zirien's progress and be ready for any contingency. Zirien didn't truly believe Iandel was getting winded. He's seen Iandel in full armor could swing his blade for hours and not get winded. Zirien continued fighting his way through the underbrush. Sprinting back toward his team, Zirien thinks, now all I need to do is stay alive for another 100 paces till the first of three traps. The First one is close, I'll be lucky to back track to one of the others.

We had no idea that our prey, Brunswick, a mature green dragon recently migrated to this area. _Only another 50 paces until the first trap_. Brunswick has closed the gap to within almost breath weapon range. _I just hope he brought along some of his loot_. _I can't believe my horned pursuer hasn't gone to the air or used a spell on me yet, he's a stupid one._ Zirien light footedly sprinted another 20 paces through the draw into ankle deep water filled with thick vines, thorny submerged shrubs and willow trees knees growing out of the deeper water.

 _I hoped the water and vegetation will slow my attacker_. Zirien traversed the water's edge from somewhat stable roots, floating logs and willow knees the 50 paces around the small deep pond. I tore up the far side of the pond into another draw. The first trap was sprung as Brunswick exits the draw and into the water. The swamp is a haven for snakes big and small most of which are poisonous. Earlier in the day, Zirien used his most basic druid abilities to befriended animals, he assembled hundreds of the local serpents and asked them to share the pond with the flesh eating fish of the swamp for a few days.

The piranhas surprised Brunswick by swarming and attacking the green dragon right after entering the water, they focused their attacks between his thick and heavy chest and shoulder scales. The dragon's movement crushed many of the small fish between its scales, though some deep wounds were produced between the bigger plates. Also, two massive snake balls enveloped Brunswick's serpentine like neck; he receives thousands of poisonous bites, only a few truly penetrated his armored body. Brunswick dove underwater, spews forth his acidic gas breath and swims through the green viscous cloud. The fouled water eats into the flesh of his attackers ending the gnashing jaws upon his body. As Brunswick's head crests the water's surface on the far side of small pond, three wolverines and two brown bears launch themselves at the readied dragon. Nature's creatures are quickly dispatched by the beast after receiving some additional minor injuries.

Gooey thick blood slowly oozed from just above both of Brunswick's shoulders from the piranhas' attack. His left upper neck area has some nasty teeth gashes which will leave a nice scar if he survives the day. His lower neck near the shoulder is stiff and painful from the snake poison slowly deteriorating muscles and his nervous system. Brunswick sees Zirien take a quick pause at the crest of the hill to speak a few muffled words and throw some clover into the air. Quickly clouds start to appear and churn. A loud roar erupts from Brunswick "Druid, you will not live to see another moon's glow".

Cresting the hill, Zirien realized he is still a short distance to Iandel and Streed. Zirien thinks to himself, _I bet those full bloods are napping or worse yet massaging each other's feet_. He quickly heads into a drier higher area of the swamp. The ground is overgrown with long thick strong vines and low bent-over live oak trees that only reach 2 to 3 body lengths in height. The sky continues to churn, now with clouds forming.

Brunswick, takes to the graying sky with a quick powerful leap and his great wings flapping, he circles upwards to get a clear view of his prey. Zirien knows he's been spotted by the flying dragon, he quickly reaches into cloak and pulls out a hand full of the green past he never has enough fresh ingredients for. He traces the trees and vines with a fresh green past mixture of holly, clover and mistletoe. Reaches out to the hovering eye, pulls a dagger from his soft leather boot, snatches the floating eye and spears the eye to a tree with his thin dagger.

Zirien embrace his half eleven "half culture" by boldly transforming into a yellow and black spotted thick powerful half cat from the cheetah family and half wolverine creature that dwells in this land. As a Chyne Zirien is able to swiftly and stealth traverse the high swamp land and the thick strong body is able to endure pain. _This dragon, might have some cunning, better be careful._ Zirien Looked over his shoulder and saw Brunswick change his wings into a dive pose and his long neck draws back into the classic snake-strike position. The transition into a dive is swift and sudden and takes mere seconds to be in breath weapon and bite range. The Chyne quickly doubled his speed (not near as fast as the cheetah due to the bulk of the Wolverine half) and makes a tight turn to be missed narrowly by the acid spray _. How predictable this one is…_ Zirien thinks to himself.

Now Zirien heads back to the pierced magical eye at break neck speed, jumping from tree limb to open areas ensuring Brunswick follows. With heavy breaths, the Chyne slows which allows his attacker to swoop down lower for the kill. With one last feline leap, Zirien glides over the speared eye. Brunswick's hawk like dive, and coiled snake strike with devastating bite attack that was much faster than the eye could follow. Brunswick is able to grab Zirien's Chyne form with his 2 inch slicing teeth and crushing mouth. Brunswick takes pleasure in grinding the tasty morsel within his jaws, enjoying the taste of the Chyne's salty blood upon his tongue and down his throat. The massive dragon whips the catlike body back and forth like a rag doll and flings the limp body to the ground. He knows the pesky Druid did not survive his assault. At the same time, the paste smeared vines and live oaks reach upwards and lasso Brunswick's wings causing the great beast to be pulled down and pinned to the ground momentarily.

Breathless from the half mile sprint, Iandel, the armored elf tops the hill as the green worm hurl's Zirien's lifeless cadaver to the ground. Standing partially behind a thick tree, he knocks and fires two well aimed hand crafted heart wood arrows with enchanted acorn tips fired from a slender enchanted long bow that easily strikes the beast. As the first arrow strikes the dragon's hardened thick shoulder armored plates, the arrow shaft pierces the acorn tipped arrow causing a frontward fire blast that bursts through most of the beast's armor plating. A small demonstration of Iandel's precision, concentration and shooting skill, the second arrow strikes an inch below the first arrow. The second arrow blasts and sears into the beast revealing flesh and rib and shoulder muscles.

Streed, the 2nd twin arrives with his small fluffy white bear named Humphrey just in time to see his half-brother Zirien's lifeless Chyne body skid to a stop near the water's edge. Streed took a slightly longer route hoping to be able to attack on the dragons back or flank. He followed the natural slope of the hill downward to the draw that is formed from small two hills coming together with a small stream that trickles toward the dragon. He is dressed in very light and finely crafted leather shirt and pants. His small white bear is in fact a 10-foot-tall, 1,500-pound male Polar Bear wearing a collar with a long string of pretty gem stones that are enchanted with many protection and strength spells, two emeralds are charmed to reduces its size but not his weight. Humphrey's top and bottom canine teeth have been replaced with oversized mitheral teeth and claw covers. Humphrey would be extremely scary if he was full size, however the cute little head comes to mid-thigh to an elf. Streed positions himself in front of the Chyne and behind a thick tree. He invokes his favorite custom spell and fires one small sized silver dagger, barely a third of his ability, into the fresh wound his brother's arrows caused. The dagger strikes deeply into charred flesh.

"Puny Elves", bellowed Brunswick, _The Fey are a lucky lot, but will fail like all others that have crossed my path these thousand years_. He snapped his thick clawed fingers and the green paste smeared vines and trees release his body. As he rights his body, he inhales deeply while his gaze falls upon the armored elf that rendered armor from flesh and bone. _The armored elf, the one who brought me so much pain, must die next._ Not forgetting the insignificant third attacker, he coiled his tail like a snake poised and ready to strike down the sneaky magic wielding elf attempting to hide within the shadows.

Zirien's crushed Chyne body struck the ground and skidded to a halt. Another basic Druid ability is spontaneous healing when changing forms. While being crushed in Brunswick's mouth, Zirien started the transmutation process back into half Elvin form which saved his life. Zirien thinking to himself, _a critical error worm whelp, you should have eaten me…_ The transformation stopped all the internal bleeding and repaired much of the damage caused by Brunswick's crushing assault. As Zirien climbed to his feet a grin came to his handsome face, _he could feel the cool summer rain drops gently fall upon his cheeks, thinking to himself, tonight we will feast on another dragon heart…_

Iandel sprinted laterally and toward the front of the dragon, he quickly aimed through the rain drops, down the knocked and drawn arrow shaft aiming center mass of the dragon that is poised to attack. He thought he could launch one more arrow before he'll need to evade the impending acid attack. Iandel released the 3rd of many special arrows left in his quiver. The smoothness and quickness appeared almost mechanical as he stowed his bow and with blinding speed, he drew his self-made thicker than normal glinting long sword as he charged to the dragon's injured right flank. He side-stepped and ducked to avoid most of the viscous fluid that spewed from the dragon's open mouth. In a seamless motion, Iandel quickly shed his acid covered cloak as he saw the explosive arrow hit and blow off two more medium sized dragon scale plates.

 _I loved that cloak, Iandel thought to himself, it helped me hide in the woods._ With two hands on the hilt of his sword, he makes a downward overhead swing. During the ark of the blade's attack, Iandel feels the heavy silver fluid travel internally from the hollow sword handle into the thick hollow blade. This action increases both the speed and mass of the blade which enables the mystical razor sharp blade to easily penetrate the dragons exposed seared flesh. The blade effortlessly cuts through the thickly charred flesh and sinew. With a little extra push, the sword's blade carves deeply into muscle and enters bone. Iandel twists the blade chipping a chunk of bone and shredding muscle from bone.

Staying well out of reach of the dragon's tail attack while mentally maneuvering Humphrey to stays near and always behind, Streed maneuvers to get another shot at the wound opened by Iandel. He aims both palms and conjures 3 much larger silver energy daggers, they silently discharge and ark around to penetrate deeply into the wounds opened by Iandel's arrow and sword attacks. The Green Dragon's massive body involuntarily shuddered and the beast roars in deep deafening agony. Instinctually and with blinding speed, the green beast bounds rearward and pounces onto the offender.

Streed's hands still poised in the dagger attack position, He locked eyes with the dragon's and felt the dragon's pain and horror burning deeply within the dragon's eyes. Brunswick has only once felt such pain, fearing for his life. With only 3 usable legs and the help of his massive wings, the green whelp swiftly spins, and descends landing full force on the thin elf. Paralyzed with fear Streed thought, "T _his is going to hurt, a lot…_ , I'm getting so laid with this story".

 _Streed's funny bone is going to tingle a little…_ Zirien grinned and closed his eyes, a quick request: "with pure thoughts and energy deep within himself and his deity, he reached out with the joined energy and touched the wet and dripping sky and they demand electrical light to boil the blood of his foe". The charged sky produces multiple white-hot bursts of electricity down into the dragon's prone body. The electrical bolts carved into the exposed bone and rip through the welp's body causing massive internal damage while some of the electricity dances across the green scales. The electricity turns the emerald hide into an ethereal purple mosaic. Brunswick's ancient mind goes black; his external wounds cauterize from the electricity and the bleeding stops. His great body quivers violently one last time and falls limp; his heart still beats yet, weak and very slow.

The bright light of midday breaks through the quickly retreating clouds, Streed's half buried and singed body is pulled from under the bulk of the dragon by his brother Iandel. Iandel, touching his neck, checks for the life affirming internal thumps to verify that Streed is alive. With brotherly love and a chuckle, he slaps Streed awake. With a huge sigh of relief, Streed says, "Time to get to work boys, we need to skin the body tonight and find his lair first thing in the morning, if he has a mate or treasure, both my escape if we don't find it soon." each identifies their jobs and starts to execute their tasks.

Zirien knows his job well, he's done it three times now first on the white dragon way up north high in the mountians during a winter snow storm. Streed lost his fur ball cat in that battle. Next, in the desolate tract while herding camels across a suspected blue dragon's hunting grounds. The most recent cowardly black dragon that we chased into 3 bogs before we finally subdued and killed her. Zirien shredded some critical leather while skinning that one. So he commissioned a sword smith to upgrade their skinning tools. The craftsman modified the fleshing tool by making the handle big enough to use two handed and making the "D" shaped blade more robust and larger. The one skinning blade changed into two, the first blade called the "belly-buster" is also 2 handed and extremely sturdy with a thin and saw-like blade that is used to make the initial incision at the chest through the belly area down to the tail. The second and smaller one is used one handed knife and exceedingly sharp. It is used to dismember internal organs, to essentially hollow-out the carcass.

"Time to gut the fish." Zirien walked to the green dragon and took a minute to assess the massive size of the beast. Its 40 hands to the shoulder, and another 20 to 30 hands to its greatest height. Zirien walked off its length to over 25 paces while determining the best route of the first incision. Excitedly Zirien yell to his brothers, "It's the biggest dragon we've killed so far." Sarcastically adding, "Good Job GIRLs".

Zirien grab the belly buster and walk to the dragon that was laying pretty much on his left side with his broken, smoking left leg mostly under its body. With a steady hand Zirien reach out and felt that the whelps body was still very warm. Feeling for the ribcage following the rib line to where left and right intersect. Zirien used the belly buster first, he made a small notch between two thick dark green chest plates. After a few minutes of strenuous probing, prodding the small notch grew into a small hole. With sweat starting to gleam at Zirien's brow he finally feelt the belly buster punch through the first layer of the solid scale into the second substantial hide layer. With an audible pop, the belly buster punctured the white connective layer and plunged into the chest cavity as thick warm blood sprays out of the incision and onto Zirien's face and chest.

Zirien flipping the belly buster around and he insert the large hooked end into the fresh hole in the dragon's chest and started the long incision from the chest down the belly, around scales, keeping the incision as center line as possible down to the creature's massive testicles. With the belly open, the stench infuses the atmosphere while the exposed blubber and organs slowly protrude from the beast. Zirien grabbed and pulled the loose chum and entrails while slightly throwing up in his mouth. Zirien switched to his skinning knife, he lanced into the dragon looking for the Dragon's Baculum a long extremely strong bone that the dragon uses to gain an erection to be able to penetrate his mates armored organ. Zirien finds the 10 foot floating bone and frees it form its sheath.

It's time to harvest the dragon's valuable components from the inside". It's disgusting, but much quicker from the inside. Hyperventilating Zirien ascend into the warm beast's body. He pushed and pulled at warm entrails and lungs. He pushed his way inward into the lung cavity, prudently cutting a path with his small razor sharp dagger, making sure to not damage the stomach, key organs or cut a major artery. Zirien inched his way toward the beast's still beating heart that is pumping thick warm blood through the "dead?" dragon's body.

Zirien cautiously slide through the carcass, as he grabbed the esophagus he saw the light of day. Iandel must have already removed the head, Zirien thought to himself. He felt the way down to the stomach connection and severed the thick cartilage-like, flesh pipe organ. Now, completely out of breath Zirien explode from the dragon's stomach incision while hauling a small portion of the stomach out. Zirien call to his brothers, "Give me a hand over here, we need to pull both stomachs out of this reeking beast."

"Sounds like fun." Iandel while standing up, stows his skinning knife on his hip belt, then flexes his 16-inch right bicep and gives it a kiss and with a huge grin and heads over to Zirien. While Zirien was inside the dragon Iandel made quick work of severing the dragons head from its neck. He used a hammer and chisel to remove the top of the skull revealing the grey matter of the brain. Additionally, he marked the best scales in preparation to dismember to make medium and small shields. So far he has removed 2 of the six scales that he will later turn into six sided shields that Streed will teach how to dance to protect us.

Streed's job is to identify the soft supple scale areas that will be harvested to make strong thin dragon scale armor. He's made the initial rough cuts from the top of the dragons head and will move to under its arm and behind the knees and elbows. Streed wipes the sweat from his forehead and the coagulated blood from his hands he slowly stands up. "Oh my god, I'm sore…" while stretching out his pounced-on body and aching joints, he replies "OK, I'm coming".

The three brothers clean and dry the protruding warm and sticky stomach. Once they are able to maintain a firm grasp, in unison they begin to pull. Iandel raises his right foot and places it on the dragon's body next to the protruding stomach. With Iandel's massive strength and additional leverage the trio are able to feel the stretching then snapping and finally the release of connective tissue deep within the dragon's body. With great effort, and 15 minutes of repositioning, teamwork and struggling with its bulk, the two stomachs slowly ooze then flop onto the ground. Iandel pulls his boot knife and severs the first stomach from the second, enabling some of the content to spill to the ground. Then he severs the second, smaller stomach, from the large intestines. Zirien and Streed manhandle the first and larger stomach, they twist and squeeze the giant sack spilling the partially digested deer and fish pieces to the ground. Iandel does the same thing to the smaller second stomach a much easier job squeezing the thick pudding like mush. Expelling the fully digested flesh and bone. Zirien and Iandel start the scraping or cleaning process. They scrape the mucosa that covers inside and between the stomach folds and work especially hard on cleaning out all the gastric glands. Lastly, they smear a thick coat of dragon brains inside and outside of the stomach and use leather straps to secure the openings of the two sturdy thin lightweight supple flesh bags.

I again hyperventilate in preparation to reenter the dragon's abdominal cavity. I throw the two dragon stomachs over my shoulders and start the burrowing process to the beast's watermelon size heart, preying the flesh is still beating. Thanking the gods upon confirmation, I maneuver both bag openings near the primary artery still pumping blood from the heart. I move about two feet down the main artery and sever it. While thinking " _This puny_ _ **half**_ _elf will now drink your essence, rash dragon…"_ Holding the artery, I direct the hot thick fluid directly into my mouth and drink deeply. My body is healed of all wounds and bursts with energy; my mind clears of all uncertainties and become more alert. Oh, _By the Gods… I'll not sleep for over a week..._ _Never overdue a great thing…_ He directs the flow of the blood into the two dragon's stomachs filling them to half capacity. Zirien re-secures the fleshy opening to prevent future leaks.

Receiving help from his two cohorts, the three maneuver the slimy sacks from the partial hollowed out abdomen to the ground. Taking turns, Iandel and Streed deeply drink the dragon's blood from the container, which energize and fully heal, knowing they will need the energy lasting 4 or 5 days to find Brunswick's lair and the long trip back. The team secures the container stomach by suspending it from a tree limb in order to keep it off the ground. The three go back to tasks at hand. Iandel's focuses on the arduous attention to detail task of skinning pristine scale male, and then applying the grey matter to the thick strips of dragon scale hide. Streed goes back to the dragon's cadaver and finishes the pain staking tedious task of stripping armor from carcass.

Habit provoked I again hyperventilate but know it's not necessary due to drinking the dragon blood. I enter into the partially hollowed cavity of the dragon. I guide myself to the still beating heart? Perplexed, I reach out with my ungloved hand and feel the warmth and quivering while questioning the reality of the situation. "He's _been dead less than an hour, should it still be warm?… Beating?.. We may NOT be eating like the Gods tonight for dinner"._ Thump-Thump… "Can it be true? The heart remains alive…" Thump- Thump… _What magic is this?_ I move my knife to separate the still attached veins, arteries and ligaments. Before I make the first cut I feel all around the substantial solid flexible protective covering of the heart. I feel a walnut sized knot suspended between two fluid filled protective layers. I can see that the newly discovered organ feeds the heart. I pull my razor sharp dagger, and make the final cuts leaving the heart untouched. Thump- Thump…

Securing the heart and holding it like a delicate egg easily broken, Thump-Thump… I depart the carcass and walk to the suspended smaller dragon stomach bag and place the heart into the blood filled cavity Thump-Thump… Zirien also placed a large leg bone inside the stomach to hoping to prevent the heart from being squished or damaged. Now that the delicate work is completed, Streed casts a spell to increase the speed of the brothers that is usually reserved for fighting in combat. The three brothers work feverishly at more than double speed over the next two hours to: strip precious meat, remove and clean the small and large intestines; surgically removing tendons and ligaments; and armor from the dead dragon. Streed's final mission is a personal one, he climbs into the huge dragon's skull and hollows out the dragon's horns marrow and then he extracts all 20 toenails and places them in his personnel back pack. _Chewing toenails is great for the libido_. The team safeguards the prized materials harvested by placing the materials into the suspended dragon blood filled stomachs which fills them to capacity.

Streed casts his final spells to continue to increase their work pace. They place all leftover meat and bone scraps in a neat pile at the center of the camp. They construct drying racks out of the dragon ribs and bones to dry and preserve the dragon meat and iron strong bones. Lastly, they fully clean the dragon's head and focus work in the brain cavity. Saving the left over grey matter for future projects. They discover that the brain cavity is big enough to comfortably hold three elven sized bodies… They finish their work by stringing the dragon hoard in the trees or buried in the earth.

Still fully charged from the dragon's blood and bellies full of choice cuts of dragon meat, the brothers decide to attempt to get some rest in order to replenish the needed spells necessary to find and assault Brunswick's lair. They spend the next 4 hours in silent rest, but no sleep, which seems to work out for them. Maybe a byproduct of drinking fresh dragon's blood.

The brothers start out as soon as their spells are replenished. Zirien and Iandel take the lead, they space themselves 20 paces apart, Streed falls into formation centered and 20 paces to their rear. The 2 elves and the druid move silently through the woods. The success of the team has always been their ability to maintain strict discipline.

Streed reaches into a small pouch and fishes out a small double cat's eye marble. It took him months to craft the precious orb, but not as long as crafting Humphrey's collar. Streed says a few quiet words and the orb's eyes blink then takes flight. Streed is now able to mentally maneuver the eye orb to see invisibility and see in the dark, along with hearing individuals' thoughts and noises along with being able to speak to someone through it. It took him weeks to get over the vertigo, the first week of dizziness, vomiting and falling down was quite intense. Streed's orb's primary mission is rear security, flying around 50 to 75 paces behind the formation watching and listening for someone to sneak up behind.

They move out slowly and extremely quietly, Iandel casts a quick spell that prevents his armor from making any sound. The three brothers' move with purpose, direction and motivation, they are in hunting mode so all communication will be with hand and arm signals. Iandel, a ranger who has been tracking creatures for over 50 years, quickly picked up the dragon's trail following it down to the lake. Going down the hill, they see the destruction left in the wake of Brunswick: green putrid water with dead fish and snakes floating on the water, two wolverines and one bear body are floating snout down.

Half way down the hill I move to the left checking the third wolverine's body for any sign of life. The body is cold. Closer to the lake they come upon the last brown bear; its body is still warm with the chest raising and falling very slowly and labored. Zirien quickly pull out the green ointment and apply it to the bear's wounds and say a few words over the body. The bear leans over and with its sand paper tongue licks his face. Zirien scruffs his neck, and tell him to go up the hill and eat his fill of the dragon's corpse left in the center of camp and to guard all the other gear until his return. The brown bear starts to drool, licks his lips and walks up the hill toward the work camp. When the bear passes Iandel and Streed, they feed their new friend a couple of sugar cubes in thanks for his efforts in today's battle. Streed sends Humphrey along with the bear to help protect their valuable possessions.

Knowing that over time, the lake will repopulate, they fall back into formation and move forward tracing Brunswick's last steps, hoping to find the mature green dragon's hoard. As the sun sets over the horizon and the day transitions to the next they continue moving but much slower, zigzagging through the forest from one animal kill site to the next. Trail signs or animal kill sites begin to appear more regularly, the more west they travel. During their travels they discovered that there are less of nature's animals as we move further west. As the sun crested the horizon, the almost nonexistent trail lead directly into a large silent valley void of any living animals.

The team entered into a small draw, they form a circle facing outward and they went to the prone position with feet touching to silently signal any movement within their field of view. Now it's Streed's turn for fun. He methodically searches the valley with the floating eye. The eye was directed to search the perimeter, peering inward for any large movements, holes or caves that could house our old friend. After two tedious hours, the eye's aerial recon resulted in three probable dragon berthing locations. All three areas have clear signs that a dragon passed through that area. There are huge foot prints, piles of scat, tail dragging imprints and wing buffet marks on the ground. Streed conjured two floating eyes; he attunes one for Iandel and the other for Zirien and stationed them over the two smaller and furthest possible dragon hoard entrances. Iandel and Zirien will observe their specific areas for any type of movement and will give a hand signal if there is any movement.

The nearer entrance is a 30 minute slow deliberate walk. Instead of making the trek, the two brothers encourage Streed to fly his precious marble into the cave entrance to determine if the cave is occupied and to determine the best avenue of approach. The cave entrance was about 40 foot around with a flat flooring and an arched smooth ceiling. The eye silently moves deeper into the cave system. After another 15 minutes of tediously slow progression the eye come to an intersection. Two tunnels appear to head back toward the surface and another lead downward. The eye continues deeper into the earth. Another 15 minutes of slow floating the eye enters into a large natural cavern. Streed is now able to pick up some surface thoughts of its occupant. Among many rants, Streed was able to identify the dragon's name is Jade and she is unaware that Brunswick her mate is dead. Streed also notes that there is one theme to Jades thoughts, "All Orc's Must Die…" some thoughts in common tongue most in dragon. Streed, thinking of his precious orb that cost him more than he cares to admit, quickly and quietly maneuvers the orb back to the groups hide site. Streed, gently nudges his brother's feet and then maneuvers onto his knees, he quickly and quietly casts a spell which enables him to explain the situation to his brothers without saying a word. They quickly devise a plan of attack.

Zirien slowly goes to one knee and reaches into his back pack. He removes nine small delicate wooden boxes and place three acorns and three berries into each. He keeps the small pouch full at all times and always at his hip. He then secures the boxes together with some twine.

The 3 brothers move out in a much closer formation, this time Iandel takes the lead with his bow out and sword and shield easily accessible. Streed now invisible is about sward distance behind Iandel and staggered to the left ready to spell cast. Zirien another sward length from Streed staggered right also armed with long bow, sword at the ready. They make the slow trek through the unnatural too quiet woods with zero contact with any living creatures moving toward the cave entrance.

Iandel turned to Zirien and maked his hand gesture for Zirien to turn into a small bird, probably a nocturnal bat and fly into the cave. _Not this time…_ Zirien lifted his hand and extend his middle finger in Iandel's general direction. _Stick to the plan brother_ … Zirien thought to himself. The Brothers entered the narrow dark cave together as the deadly fine-tuned team they have become. Once inside the cave entrance, Iandel and Streed move forward about 15 paces and watch into the darkness while Zirien casted a spell above his head that makes a bunch of small narrow deep fissures that run deeply into the arched cave ceiling. The spell weakened the entrance stones and a few small rocks started to drop. Then Zirien casted another spell that enabled him to easily dig into the hard stone flooring. With his knife, Zirien made a square hole with a concaved bottom then he tightly positions the finely made nine delicate boxes within the cavity. Then he pulled out 3 hand-fills of iron marbles and lightly placed them on top of the boxes. Lastly, Zirien strategically placed rocks around the hole and around the boxes to level out the hole with the rest of the cave and ensuring to leave the top exposed. Zirien then casted his last spell that starts swirling the sky to make clouds.

Iandel and Streed moved outside the cave and got into a hide site that allowed them a view of the entrance. Zirien casted another spell which calls forth a mass of venomous biting and stinging spiders, scorpion, beetles and centipedes. The carpet like mass of insects formed and starts to move deep into the cave with Zirien behind guiding them to the dragon. The movement is deadly quiet and steady, after 10 minutes, they reached the intersection and then they went deeper into the cave. Once they reached the natural cave entrance Zirien saw the other green dragon sitting and reading a scroll. Zirien guided the silent creeping insects toward the dragon that was deep in thought. The carpet of insects closed the gap and engaged the dragon by slowly swarming over starting at the tail and hind quarters walking up and over the dragon's body. Once the dragon was a third covered Zirien commanded the insects to start biting and stinging between the thick scales, eyes, ears and inside its mouth. Zirien then launched three basic arrows at the dragon's front shoulder, all three struck their mark. At this point the dragon was completely surprised as the three arrows bounce off its scales, Zirien quickly shot three more normal arrows with little or no effect and then started backing away. Luring the dragon into the trap.

Jade the green dragon quickly stood, attempted to shake off the pesky insects and then peered into the darkness to find the real threat. The green dragon spotted the assaulting half elf attempting to slip into the darkness. The dragon, quickly picked up Zirien's scent and perused like a cat chasing a mouse, the dragon rapidly closed the gap. Half way across the open cavern, the dragon no longer smelled Zirien, there is a new pungent scent that replaces the sweet tasty elf flesh scent.

As Zirien rounded the corner he quickly transformed into his Chyne form and head for the exit. He don't want to get too far ahead of the dragon, He'd hate for it to use the wrong exit and then we'd have to fight it toe to toe. It's never a good idea to fight dragons on their terms. Once Zirien heard the dragon make the turn, he took a quick look over his shoulder to verify it is coming this way. As Zirien looked he saw that the dragon was much faster and stealthier than he thought, was it's literally on his tail. Zirien thought to himself, _Oh my God, Two Days in Row I'm going to get eaten. This tactic seems to work, but I'm starting to not like it…_ again Zirien quickly double his speed to avoid being eaten and was able to increase the gap by 20 paces. The dragon must think that Zirien was not much of a threat or he'd have been drenched in acid by now. As Zirien exited the cave, into the summer storm, he ensured to pass directly over the buried boxes hoping the beast would step on it. Zirien then made a hard right and headed to an area he found earlier that provided excellent cover and concealment.

As Zirien exited the cave entrance, Iandel didn't wait to see if the dragon stepped on the prepared trap, Iandel readied his bow by using two fingers to pull the taunt string back to his chin. He waited in that position till the dragon could be heard coming. He timed the shot perfectly, the dragon missed the trap, but the explosive arrow meets its mark.

The arrow exploded and started the deadly chain reaction. The boxed exploded in flame which ignited Zirien's special berries and acorns, they exploded with a focused charge upwards. The concaved hole Zirien dug in the stone focused and funneled the energy upwards directly into the iron balls. The extreme heat and fire turned the iron balls into molten iron. The fire, molten iron and rocks effortlessly tore through the dragon's belly scales then penetrate deeply into the dragon's soft belly. Iandel's second exploding arrow hit its mark. The weakened cave ceiling gave way giving gravity an extra boost. The huge falling boulders struck and pinned the dragon's body to the ground.

Streed was also standing at the ready. He discharged his five large silver daggers as the large bomb ignited under the dragon, the deadly daggers penetrate deeply into the exposed smoldering belly flesh just before the boulders pinned the dragon to the ground.

Zirien was able to watch the incredible destruction as he turned back into his half elf form. Not wanting to be left out he released the full force of the electrical elements. Fifteen lightning bolts shot down from the sky and bury themselves into the green dragons exposed head.

Jade's belly was shredded and imploded upward and inwards by Iandel's arrows, the tons of boulders fall onto her back, the inertia and extreme weight squeeze the jellied organs out of the ragged hole and slowly flowed between the boulders and onto the ground. The green dragon struggled to return to her feet, then the lightning bolts pummeled her head till her lights goes black.

The three brothers searched the cave and found a large mound of gold and gem stones. They also liberated the large dragon scroll that the green dragon was reading. The mound of gold was much too large to be carried, so Streed reached into his small pack and unfolded a medium sized leather pack. The three brothers pushed and shoveled the loot into the bag. If you listened closely, you could hear the coins bouncing off a stone floor. Zirien remarked, "we are going to have a mess to clean up when we finally get back to the cave."

The brothers concluded there work as efficiently as possible and headed back to the first melee site. It was early evening when they arrived, Streed was relieved to see Humphries and all the gear was just fine. They tried to figure out what they would need for the next leg of the journey and pushed the rest of the equipment into the medium bag and onto the floor of their cave home.

Zirien changed into his half elephant and half rhino form commonly referred to as his ELNO or traveling form, the two brothers and Humphries climbed aboard and headed out. Iandel facing the front, Streed facing the back. Both had spell and weapon ready. _Never know when you are going to get attacked…_ all three thought pretty much at the same time _._


End file.
